Council says 'no' to 'yes man' for Soules

District 10 Councilman Carlton Soules grew indignant this week on the City Council dais. He was miffed because the council's Governance Committee had rejected his candidate for a seat on the San Antonio Water System board of trustees.

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Chaired by Mayor Julián Castro, the committee voted unanimously to keep Louis Rowe as representative of the city's Northeast sector. That's the political turf of Soules, who wanted to install Kirk Francis, the former mayor of Hill Country Village.

After the full council, save for District 9 Councilwoman Elisa Chan, a lame duck who's resigning next week, flouted Soules by reappointing Rowe, the councilman let loose a resentful e-blast.

“Regrettably, having a dependable 'yes man' trumped our desire to put an independent voice on the board,” Soules wrote. “Once again, the more than 300,000 citizens of the Northeast quadrant will continue to go without independent representation on the SAWS board.”

That's rich: Double-chocolate mousse rich.

It's that rich because a “yes man” is what Soules wanted in Francis.

Just ask Francis.

“When Carlton and I first met, he told me what I should do when I got (the appointment),” Francis told me. “I disagreed with him.”

What did Soules ask Francis to do?

“He basically said, 'This is what I want to see happen,'” Francis said.

Pulling strings on a puppet, though, struck Francis, the would-be puppet, as wrong.

“I told Carlton I would not be his man,” Francis said. “I would do what I thought was best ... because I don't think that's good governance.”

The councilman eventually agreed not to micromanage his appointee, Francis said. In the end, it didn't matter; Castro made certain of that.

But what sort of strings would Soules-as-Svengali have pulled? Another e-blast, this one in January, offers an idea.

“After more than a year of studying SAWS,” Soules wrote, “it is clear that this organization has not engaged in serious cost-cutting measures to date, nor do they have a plan to do so at this time.”

Such a pummeling was nothing new: For years, Soules has served as a steadfast critic of SAWS.

In April, his attacks even drew an unusual rebuke from Gene Dawson Jr., president of Pape-Dawson Engineers, who wrote Soules an eight-page letter accusing the councilman of “creating a distraction from the overall community goals of a well-managed water company with an adequate water supply at a reasonable rate.”

About two years ago, I tried to trace Soules' distaste for SAWS.

I discovered his father, Joe Soules, had served on a SAWS rates advisory committee in 2009. Appointed to represent large residential lot owners, the elder Soules vigorously opposed the utility's plan to assess higher rates for higher levels of water consumption.

Joe Soules voted against the new rates, which passed anyway. (Before his defeat, the elder Soules warned that such water users tend to be “powerful executives” more likely to complain to officials.)

Since my column on that topic ran, the councilman has refused to return my calls.

That's a shame.

I'd like to ask Soules whether he has literally declared “war” on his council colleagues. In the audience when the Governance Committee rejected Francis, Soules was overheard muttering, “This is war,” according to City Hall sources.

The councilman appears to be following through on that declaration.

In his e-blast this week, Soules disparaged District 8 Councilman Ron Nirenberg as “our fellow North Side Council colleague” who “led the charge” to deny “independent representation” on the SAWS board.

After hearing from Francis, we know that's hypocritical.

As for Soules, he should know it's tough to fight a “war” when you alienate potential allies.